At around 10pm on Monday, the soldiers and the three human traffickers entered the southern neighbourhood of the village tract. As they entered a house, some of the women shrieked with terror. At this point, the soldiers fired in the air with automatic weapons causing locals to flee the scene.

Six women were dragged out of their homes and taken out of the village where they were raped throughout the night. The victims are 45, 32, 30, 19, 16 and 16 years old.

Locals rescued the women on the next morning following the payment of a million kyats.

The human traffickers are also from the locality but they don’t live in the Rohingya villages anymore as they have a long record of committing crimes against the local populace, say local sources. They have been identified as Md Salam alias Momo, Ola Chand and Md Rafique. It is rumoured they live along the military base.

The security forces have long been directly involved in criminal activities such as human trafficking and drugs smuggling.